More than just financial education at HarborOne Multicultural Center

Run by HarborOne, the Multicultural Banking Center offers financial and non-financial classes in four languages.

By Carla Gualdron

The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA

By Carla Gualdron

Posted Feb. 20, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Feb 20, 2013 at 8:03 PM

By Carla Gualdron

Posted Feb. 20, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Feb 20, 2013 at 8:03 PM

BROCKTON

» Social News

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Marcos Campos takes an intermediate English class at the HarborOne Multicultural Banking Center.

Originally from Peru, Campos has been in Randolph for two months visiting his sick mother. He decided to take advantage of his time in the states to perfect his English.

“I want to perfect my English because I want to move to the United States and continue my career in information security,” said Campos, 24, in Spanish.

The multicultural center opened in 2007 to combat sub-prime lending and other predatory financial practices directed at low- and moderate-income residents, minorities, and immigrants.

The center offers financial courses such as personal finance, credit coaching, and home ownership and foreclosure workshops.

“Financial education became popular with the mortgage crisis and the recession. People were saying, ‘My God, how am I going to get out of debt?’” said Leo MacNeil, senior vice president of community relations.

The center also offers non-financial classes, including intermediate English, computer basics, citizenship test preparation, and how to be a smart shopper.

Classes are taught in Brockton’s four most popular languages: English, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, and Spanish. Each class averages about 20 students.

“The number one reason this center exists is to build a trust with immigrants,” said Aguinaldo L. Fonseca, vice president of the Multicultural Banking Center.

He explained that immigrants in their home country have gone through negative experiences with banks. Or they have gotten into financial problems by getting into loans they could not afford.

“We’re here to provide skills and understanding of various banking services,” said Fonseca.

The center employs three staff members and three paid teachers. There are also six HarborOne employees who volunteer to teach the financial classes.

Over the five years the center has been open at 68 Legion Parkway, it has helped more than 5,000 community members. The challenges it has faced have been few and unexpected.

“The issue really was how us bankers were going to run an education institution, something none of us have ever done before,” said MacNeil.

Questions as to how to select the correct teacher, and how to make sure they had the right skills, were considered as the center began to take shape.

Despite some challenges, the center has been recognized on a national and international level. Other banking centers and credit unions have tried to duplicate the center. Special visitors to the center include the prime minister and ambassador of Cape Verde, along with other representatives of credit unions and community banks across the states.

Agueda Teixeira, 28, moved to Brockton from Cape Verde 18 months ago. Today, she works at the local Market Basket, but in Cape Verde, she worked as an elementary school teacher.

Teixiera is also enrolled in the intermediate English class at the center.

Page 2 of 2 - “Learning English opens the door to another world,” she said in Portuguese. She, too, would like to perfect her English in order to become a schoolteacher here.

“We’ve found that through this center and other initiatives, people do their banking with us because we support them and their community,” said MacNeil.